Excessive tax to blame for contraband

In all the recent fuss about contraband cigarettes it seems that no one has questioned the health and safety of dedicated butt pickers.

On behalf of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association just short of 20,000 cigarette butts were picked up and subjected to analysis. The results were surprising. Just over a quarter of the butts picked up in Toronto and surrounding area were contraband. This contrasts with Northern Ontario where slightly more than half the butts were contraband.

North Bay is second only to Sault Ste Marie in the popularity of illegal tobacco. Two North Bay high schools were singled out as hot spots for contraband tobacco use.

All this is very disturbing. It proves that all the efforts made by health authorities and educators to prove to people that tobacco is dangerous have not been very successful.

Tobacco is not marketed nor is it advertised. Salespeople do not go door to door selling tobacco products. Governments impose savage taxes on tobacco supposedly in the interest of public health.

A great many people have become hooked on what is still a legal product. They are struggling to pay hydro bills. There is a shortage of jobs and inflation is cutting into savings and incomes. Economic pressures force many people to seek any way they can to save money.

Convenience stores are in the business of selling cigarettes. They resent the competition from illegal sources engaged in what is essentially a criminal activity. At the same time, the tobacco addict can save about 60 per cent by buying contraband.

First Nations' reserves are widely blamed as the main source of contraband. It is difficult to make a moral distinction between making a buck selling something the public wants and saving a buck by buying it.

It should be obvious there is a limit to how much taxation a free society will tolerate. The government claims it imposes outrageous tobacco taxes for the public good. It is also a gigantic money grab.

It would be more honest to impose a ban on tobacco but prohibition would likely result in a great increase in criminal activity.

Smoking is bad for the health and costs the health-care system many millions. Efforts must continue to persuade people not to smoke. At the same time, reducing tobacco taxes to something reasonable would get rid of the criminal element and induce smokers to do so legally.